Daily Content Archive
(as of Sunday, November 3, 2019)| Word of the Day | |||||||
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cantata
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| Article of the Day | |
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 Mobile Phone ThrowingMobile phone throwing is a sport in which participants throw mobile phones and are judged on distance or technique. Started in Finland in 2000, competitive phone throwing has since spread to several other countries, with contests being held as far away as the UK and the US. Many of the events promote the recycling of old phones. In most national events, winners gain an entry to the world championship. How far have top competitors hurled their mobile phones? More... | |
| This Day in History | |
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 Laika the Dog Launched into Outer Space (1957)Soviet scientists found her wandering the streets of Moscow. Nicknamed Laika, or "Barker," the little stray dog was recruited because she had already learned to withstand hunger and cold—two things she might experience in space. After intensive training, Laika became the first animal to be launched into orbit. Though she survived the launch—and even ate some food while in orbit—her capsule was not designed for a return trip. Within hours, she overheated and died. How long did the capsule orbit? More... | |
| Today's Birthday | |
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 Stephen Fuller Austin (1793)Austin was the founder of the first legal colony of English-speaking people in Mexican Texas. Following the death of his father, who had conceived the plan, Austin led 300 families to settle on the Brazos River in 1822. As his colony prospered, US immigrants poured into Mexico. Initially opposed to Texan independence, Austin tried to organize Texas as a Mexican state. He was instead imprisoned by the government for treason, after which he supported the Texas Revolution. What were his last words? More... | |
| Quotation of the Day | |
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 The scene, as beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest; if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything but his own happiness.Charles Darwin (1809-1882) | |
| Today's Holiday | |
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 Feast of St. Hubert de Liège (2020)St. Hubert (d. 727) is the patron saint of hunters, dogs, and victims of rabies. His feast day is especially honored at the church named for him in the town of St. Hubert, Luxembourg Province, Belgium, on the first weekend in November. People who live in the Forest of Ardennes bring their dogs to the church to be blessed, and St. Hubert's Mass marks the opening of the hunting season. In some places, special loaves of bread are brought to the mass to be blessed, after which everyone eats a piece and feeds the rest to their dogs, horses, and other domestic animals to ward off rabies. More... | |